Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2741: The Best Training For Stamina, Power, Strength, and Mobility

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

 In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: Best ways to train for stamina, power, mobility, and strength. (2:44) The negative brain changes from porn use. (22:03) Eccentric vs concentric. (34:04) Negative comments. (38:58) Seeing underwater without goggles. (40:52) Imprinted memories. (43:54) Stocking up on Zbiotics for the holidays. (48:07) Accidents happen. (50:00) #ListenerCoaching call #1 – I'm struggling with maintenance. Any advice on how to break out of this cycle and finally find a sustainable approach? (52:14) #ListenerCoaching call #2 – The usefulness and safety of "ass-to-grass" squats. (1:02:26) #ListenerCoaching call #3 –  Workout/diet advice to regain athletic ability for football after significant weight loss. (1:12:17) #ListenerCoaching call #4 – Considering my history of hip injury and having to modify leg stuff, how should I go about building up my leg strength? I consider myself a recovering perfectionist. (1:24:15) Related Links/Products Mentioned Get Coached by Mind Pump, live! Visit https://www.mplivecaller.com  Here's how to break free from porn, restore intimacy in your relationships & live a life of freedom using the DeepClean™ System. Access to masterclasses on intimacy, purpose, and healthy relationships. A private brotherhood community for daily accountability and support. Visit: https://deepcleancoaching.com/mindpump Receive a free copy of The Last Relapse book. Visit Pre-Alcohol by ZBiotics for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Promo code MINDPUMP25 for 15% off first-time purchasers on either one-time purchases, (3, 6, 12-packs) or subscriptions (6, 12-pack) ** Through Dec. 6th, 50% off a Reverse Dieting Strategy call with a Mind Pump coach. Visit: http://www.reversedietcall.com/  Mind Pump Store Stop Working Out And Start Practicing – Mind Pump Blog How To Improve YOUR Work Capacity (6 MOVEMENTS) | MIND PUMP TV Scientists Discover Porn Can Alter Brain Function and Emotion Justin's Road to 315 Push Press Sal Di Stefano's Journey in Faith & Fitness – Mind Pump TV The Navy SEAL Trick for Underwater Vision — No Goggles  Watch The Deepest Breath | Netflix Official Site Visit Seed for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Code 20MINDPUMP for 20% off your first month of Seed's DS-01® Daily Synbiotic. ** Adam Schafer's DEEP Squat Mobility Secrets | Behind The Scenes at Mind Pump MAPS Prime Pro Webinar Mind Pump # 2652: How Undereating is Making You Fat & Unhealthy Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Mind Pump Fitness Coaching (@mindpumppersonaltraining) Instagram  

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Enjoy the rest of the show. Strength, stamina, power, mobility. They're all awesome attributes. They're athletic and physical attributes. How do you train for each one? what's the best way to structure your workouts so you can get those. And what if you just want one and not the others? What if you want all of them?

You're going to hear from three experienced trainers right now on how to do them. Let's go. Yeah. Three experienced trainers. That's us. All different pursuits. Yeah, these are all different physical pursuits. And use your workouts.

Well, I should say your workouts or how you train will contribute largely to one, but not to the others. And so I think what we will be cool is if we kind of talk about what we think. If you're trying to get somebody to improve each one of these attributes, and then maybe at the end what a routine would look like that would give you maybe all. Let's talk a little bit about what not to do and probably the mistake that all of us probably made early on in our career. And you probably see consistently, which is this idea that, well, my sport requires all these things. So therefore, my workouts are going to look to incorporate all of it.

of it at one time. Or very CrossFit-esque, right? You got a lot of... Remember when CrossFit got popular, you had a lot of sport teams, like, going like, oh, put our players through... Let's do this. Yeah, let's do...

Let's do CrossFit because they address... My old high school business. All these things in a workout, so isn't that a good idea? Like, so you got to explain that... Well, that's kind of common knowledge is to think to do that. It is. And here's what's used to be common knowledge.

Now, though, not so much. But if you want to get the physical attributes of a sport and you want to improve those, the best way to do it is to practice more of that sport. That used to be common knowledge, okay? That used to be the way people trained. Now, that's not to say there aren't, you can't incorporate other forms of exercise

to do things like improve power and strength and speed and, you know, all these other things. But what I'm talking about here is what you do in the gym. Like, if you want, if you're an athlete and you want to get better at your sport and get more fit for your sport, what you do in the gym is actually quite small in comparison to what you do out on the field, let's say.

So that's the best way. The best way to get in shape for jiu-jitsu is do more jihitsu. Best way to get in shape for basketball is play more basketball and so on. That being said, there's a lot of people who are like, look, I'm not necessarily actively playing a sport. You know, maybe I do a little club ball here and there. But I just want, how do I improve my stamina? Like, do I just go run for a long time or power? What is power?

Strength. You know, okay, I know it's strength training, but what's the best way to improve? strength. What about mobility? So that's kind of what I, you know, the direction I want to go to start with, because again, with athletics, it can get a bit nuanced. Yep. But the general thing, again, I want to say it's very clear, the general thing with athletics is if you want to improve the physical attributes of your sport, practice your sport,

that'll give you the most carryover because there isn't any carryover because you're doing the actual sport. You know, I wonder what happened, because you talk about how that was kind of like common knowledge before. Yes. shifted. And if you if you've studied the great ones in like basketball, for example, which

I'm more familiar with, like the Kobe Bryant's, the Steph Curry's, the Michael Jordans, the amount of time that these guys spend in the gym, they spent a little bit of time in the gym. Yeah. But a majority of it is just practicing basketball. I mean, they, like Kobe was notorious

for getting up at like 4 o'clock in the morning and going hitting a little bit of weights, but then from 5 a.m. all the way till that's right. It's all skill training. It's all skill. It's all basketball. It's all shot. It's a thousand shots. It's, you know, a hundred something free throws. It's, I mean, they just they did their sport.

But yet people were, were so curious about what do he do in the gym, his workouts, when it's like, if you looked at a pie chart of it, it wouldn't even take up a 10% of their time. It's like such a fraction. And if you look at Steph Curry who's, you know, younger

and newer, most of his strength training is very rehab looking focus. That's right. To support the playing. Band distracted type stuff. Like he's rotational movements. His training actually looks a lot like stuff to protect his body and not like. And granted, you look, his everybody who looks at him goes, oh, my God, he put like 20 pounds of muscle on in his career. And so he did build some muscle along the way.

But a lot of that's through diet and some straight training. But we highlight on this podcast all the time. You don't got to do that much weight training in order to build some muscle, you know? And it, too, depends on what stage the athletes in. Yes. And so you're talking about really, you know, the peak of their career, you know, in the pinnacle where they're only focused on their skill. And then preservation and, like, maintaining this level they've already built up strength-wise, performance, power-wise. However, when you're starting from the very beginning, the foundational strength in establishing that and the body mechanics and just the overall coordination required to,

then apply the skill better, you know, that actually matters a lot more. And then we focus on that and then we start kind of tapering off and then, you know, incorporating a lot more of the skill specific type drilling. But however, we have to establish that first and then build upon that. Right. But, you know, again, like if someone said to me, I need more stamina for jujitsu, what's a great way to build stamina? There are ways to train to improve general stamina, very effective ways, which we'll get

into. But there's also movement efficiency that comes from being very proficient in a particular movement pattern or movement. And that comes from practicing the sport. So I remember doing this doing jujitsu. At one point, I was training a lot. I had great jujitsu stamina. But then I practiced boxing and I gassed. But it wasn't because I was out of shape. It was because my movement efficiency was terrible boxing. The first time I did that. And it was like, I thought I was in shape. Round to dying. Yeah. Rather than choking on my mouthpiece. That's right. Right. So there's general fitness, and then there's fitness that's specific to a particular activity or sport. You want to get better at running. You should run. You want to get better cycling. You should cycle. If you want general better endurance or stamina, let's talk about that. You want general strength. Again, I can get really strong in the gym. But if I want to get really strong at wrestling, wrestling is going to get me really strong. Wrestling more.

That's right. But let's talk a little bit about these physical attributes. because there's a lot of people who, you know, they're listening. They're like, I just want. Yeah, they're not playing a sport, but they want those attributes. They want the athletic, they want the physical attributes, right? So we'll talk about stamina. Now, a lot of, now there's, you could kind of break stamina up into different categories. You have the kind of, that steady state, you know, where you're kind of exerting yourself at a low level.

It's long endurance, right? And what that looks like is, is your traditional cardio. I'm going to get on a machine and I'm going to plug away for 30 minutes, 40 minutes, or an hour and challenge myself somewhat. Just how long can I endure, right? This is like long distance running. Looks like this. The kind of stamina, though, that I have found that most people are interested in is less

of this. And it's more of the kind of stamina that requires high exertion, repeated high exertions. And what I mean by that is I would get clients that say, I want stamina. And I said, for what? Well, when I go to the park and I chase my kids. Yeah. You know, or I'm doing work in the yard. It's available.

It's there. It's, you know, I'm moving for, like, the kind of standard that, you know, it's, it's not this, like, steady, constant. Yeah. It's accessible. That comes from hit style cardio. That's the best way to accomplish this form of stamina. What does that look like? Sprints interrupted by recuperative interval.

Short sprints. Short sprints. Yeah, yeah. 15 seconds all out. Then letting the heart rate come all the way back down. That's right. That's right. And then repeating that.

And what happens is that period of time in between the sprints where you're waiting for your heart rate to come down as you become more fit, that gets shorter and shorter. I would add there's another endurance that people like that I think we should touch on it. Strength endurance. Yes. Yeah. Work capacity. Yeah.

Work capacity. Thank you. I was thinking along the same lines. And really it's like, how long can I, you know, hold this load? How long can I hold these weights and. carry them and still be able to maintain my composure, maintain my posture, maintain like this grip. And to, you know, that's a very valuable asset, especially when lifting weights or pursuing

anything like athletically. Yeah, now strength training is the best for that, but the type of strength training looks very much like big gross motor movement type exercises for higher reps. Compound lifts, a bit higher reps, and or unconventional. type exercises. Carries. Yeah, carries, Turkish get-ups, you know, using a sled, you know, carries either at the side, like suitcase carries, overhead carries. Those really contribute well to work capacity, the kind that you'll want when you're doing things like yard work. And the reason why I wanted to touch on that is because, you know, one of the things that will get recommended is,

so it's common. Someone gets started in their strain training program. I mean, I feel this too, especially when I've been off for a little bit, but I'm getting about to fill this today. when I get in. It's like my strength endurance will be really down. It's like it's not like my capacity to lift more load is there. But it's like by time I get it fades quick. Oh, it fades quick because I don't have any strength endurance. A lot of people recommend, oh, well, they go get on some cardio or treadmill.

They're like, no, if I keep high reps in my squatting and stuff like that, that'll get there better and faster. And it translates way better to that. And there's this idea because that's also one of the arguments you hear fitness influencers make for why people should do cardio. Oh, it improves your strength stamina inside the gym. Well, it does have some carryover. But if you go do 20 reps and squats, this way, it'd be way better. Yeah, you'll get way better strength endurance than you will. That's right. So just, that's why I wanted to point that out, because that's a common thing that's spoken about with fitness influencers that are making the case for why these people should be doing this cardio is because for the endurance inside their training.

Yeah, and I want to just add, like, the real value is like, you know, how long can I stave off fatigue because that's really like what cardio is like it's superpower like it and two to the work capacity uh point it's like you know how long can i perform this thing without like the fatigue coming in which then interrupts everything yeah yeah totally so you know okay so what does a routine look like you know three or four days a week if this is what you want you want stamina this is your main thing about three days a week of this hit style training uh with maybe a couple sessions of steady state recuperative type cardio, you'll get stamina pretty quick training in this way. And your strength training, if you want strength stamina, it's high rep stuff, super sets, high rep stuff.

But you're not doing a ton of it. This is where people mess up. Five days a week of high rep supersets, good luck. You're not going to recover very well. It's like two days a week. You still need to treat it like strength training if you want that. Then we get to power. Building power, people mess up building power because they,

allow fatigue to enter into the mix, into the formula. You can't build power when fatigue comes in. Now, you can improve your capacity to be able to exert power without fatigue as much, but that comes from training your stamina. Building power is I need to be able to, what I'm trying to train my body to do is to produce force quickly. So I have to practice the ability to produce force quickly. So if I practice jumping, I have to wait until I.

I'm ready to exert maximal force. If I jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, and I'm fatigued. I'm no longer training. Yeah. I'm building power. I'm just training endurance at that point. You're not able to summon that same amount of force. And so it actually degrades a lot of the value of that exercise that you're performing if you're at the point where it's fatigued.

So that's why the thing about when you're training, you're practicing these things, you want to practice them with that same. perfect type of mechanics, the same, something that you want to replicate every single time is like, this is the standard because that's what you're telling your body. This is how I perform it every time. Well, think about this way. If you, if I'm trying to throw a ball as far as I can, let's forget about biomechanics and technique and skill for a second. Let's just say, it's the same every time. I want to throw a ball as far as I can. So my first throw, I throw it, and it goes, I don't know, you know, 50 yards, like I throw it real far, 50 yards. And they're like, okay, I want you to beat that throw with the next one.

Am I going to throw it right away? No, I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait until I'm totally ready to throw it as hard as I can again. What I'm doing is I'm training power with that. That's how you treat your pliometrics. This is how you treat your power if you're training with Olympic lifts. Is you wait until you're able to try to beat what you did previously. This is another thing that people get wrong.

So you can always tell when you've got a really good trainer instead of a gym with how he trains, he or she trains pliometrics with their client. like right away I can walk in and see someone doing jump boxes with a client and I know that that trainer understands these principles or not by the yeah but the first two two or three reps they do with that client is it either is it a placeholder for just something to get your client tired or are they actually training power right and you will tell you what a good trainer will do is they will do that rep and then they'll be talking for the next 30 seconds to a minute breaking down what they just did like okay let's try to explode more on your hips get your feet more like this and like this and like this there's this long rest period between each rep, and they're putting so much intent on them generating that force in order to jump as hard and as high as they can, versus, all right, let's do 10 jump boxes,

and you just see a client, jump, jump, jump, jump. What you see all the time? Totally. Mobility, let's get to mobility. Mobility, you're looking at challenging ranges of motion, but you're trying to own the ranges of motion. So it's not passive. So you're getting into the range of motion through your own ability

and you're moving into them while keeping your muscles active. And here's the thing with mobility programming. This is probably the most simple of all programming. This is one of the ones the more the merrier. You practice these all day long if you want. And the more you do this, now of course there's a limit,

but I have yet to know somebody that would reach this limit, except for maybe the most crazy fanatical person. But if you did mobility work three times a day, you would get mobility faster than if you did it once a day. Yeah, there's nothing wrong. because you're active in it

and you're not passive. Because when you start getting passive, this is where we can get this function, when you're in a range of motion that you don't really own. Like, I don't have access. I can't all of a sudden recruit a bunch of muscle fibers to take me out of this safely, effectively with strength

to support my joint in that. It's like you're not really supported in some of these movements if you get there passively. So, really it's a strength at the end of the day. Like mobility is strength. And it's just expressing that in its longer form. That's right.

I think that's the most difficult part about explaining mobility is to the average eye. It looks just like stretching. Yeah. It looks like something that you're passively doing. Or just like a warm up. Yeah. So it's so important the intent that you go into the mobility movement and how much you're trying to contract all those muscles while you're in this stretch.

position. An example would be like, I'm trying to improve my squat depth. So I'll get down and sit in a squat and just relax it. That's not what we're talking about. What it would look like is I get down to the bottom, but I'm supporting myself. My muscles are supporting me and I'm active as if someone was going to jump on me. Squeezing intense. So it's like if someone were to jump on me right now, I could hold them. So that's the position I'm taking. That's the intent that I'm taking. Not like I'm so relaxed that if my kid comes and jumps on me, I'm going to hurt myself, which is what people will feel in this stretch. Like when they're doing a deep stretch, like, don't touch me. If you do, I'm going to tear something. You should be able to support something or someone if they would come push on you because you're in these

positions and you're active. And the more than merrier, which is cool mobility. If you want to improve your mobility, it's like real easy with programming. Pick some mobility movements that you can connect to. Do it all throughout the day. Practice them all day long throughout the day. And you'll see dramatic improvements. I mean, I think my recommendation always to clients is pick one or two. That's it. And drill those down as many times so you can see the benefits of what you really versus what happens sometimes is you have these people that have all this like dysfunction and they have aches and pains and there's like they're doing like 10 different mobility moves and the likelihood that they're going to do 10 different mobility moves three times four times a day is so unlikely versus if I go hey let's pick one yeah let's pick one area

that's like really egregious and let's just let's do that one mobility move and let's just try and you try and do that four five times a day and let's be consistent with that for a while and watch what an improve that we can make so I can sell you on the idea of why you want to do all these other ones. Now we get to strength. This one we talk about all the time. But with strength, you know, for most people, if you were to practice a handful of movements,

the best movements, you know, the five to eight movements that are the best ones, your bench presses, your rows, your squats, your deadlifts, your overhead presses, you know, something with rotation or something lateral. If you practice those few movements, a couple days a week, you know, two days a week or three days a week, you go in the gym and you practice them and you use a moderate to high intensity. You're not trained to failure, but you're

training a decent intensity and you're practicing them and you feed yourself appropriately. You will see very nice strength gains, pretty consistent strength, especially if this is the first few years of your strength training routine or whatever. You'll see some nice strength So now the question is like how do I combine all of these? Here's what's interesting. First off, mobility you can combine with any of these. So mobility is one of those ones that if I work on this while I'm doing everything else, it'll help all of them.

Definitely won't hurt all of them. But when you get to stamina, power, and strength, really the ones that you want to be careful with balancing or stamina and power and strength. Power and strength, you can both, you can work on those together. That looks a little bit different. But stamina is the one that you want to alternate. Now, there's a couple ways you do this. You can do this where you have a stamina day and a strength day or a stamina day and a power day.

Don't you think weeks or phases? That's what the data is showing. The data is showing if you did a stamina week and then a strength week and then a strength week and you'll do better at both than if you did if you did them all in the same week. And definitely better than if you did them all in the same workout. So this is what's interesting. And so and a lot of people don't do this, but give it a shot. One week of stamina, one week of strength. One week of stamina, one week of strength.

you'll get better at both than had you combined them in that same way. I love that. I pulled up some. So we have, so inner circle has given access to our listeners. I've been meaning to ask you since we've been working with him. You know,

I know you've openly talked about, you know, for a while now, you work, because it's been over a year now for you, right? Yeah, yeah. How long has it been? No, yeah.

I know pornography for me for longer than that. It's been almost two. Has it really? Yeah, been almost two years. Wow. Now, after all these, this long of time, urges creep back in and you still need to- You know what's interesting? This is what's interesting.

So, and I'll just mention this, inner circle is a, this is a course or a group that helps people break the addiction. Because pornography is an addiction for a lot of people. And by the way, this is like a couple times a week. So a lot of people, oh, it's only a couple times a week. And they try to stop and they find that they can't do it. And I was going to get into some of the negative brain changes, which we'll get to. But one thing I want to mention, he's giving away a book, Doug.

Yeah. Yes. It's called the last relapse. So where do they go for that? So, yeah, let me pull that up. So you could get this book. It's deepcleancoaching.com forward slash mind pump. Okay.

All right. So check that. Anyway, so back to what you're saying, Adam. What's interesting is for a long time, I thought, if, okay, if I don't have that outlet or whatever, whatever you want to refer to it as, am I just going to be, is my libido just going to go crazy?

Like, what's going to happen? Really? Yeah, yeah, because, I mean, ever since I was a kid, you know, since I was a teenager, like, am I going to go crazy? And I have a, and I have a high libido. I do have a very high libido.

So I thought, is, what's that going to be like? Is it going to put so much pressure on my spouse, that she's going to, you know, this and that and the other. No, here's what's weird is that because of the, the way that affects the brain, the novelty effect, it's got drug-like effects on the brain, which we can get into, when you stop using it over time,

that lust, which is what, it's actually lust, it's not libido, it's lust, which is different. Yeah. It starts to come down and then you have more of a healthy libido.

So I have a very good libido for my wife. Yeah. But I'm not walking around like, you know, I'm not getting my drug. Yeah. Which is pretty wild. wild. So no. No, I don't get these. The urges were worse when I was using it. Yeah. It was always, it was never, I mean, we all have our thing, right? Anyone's been listening. I openly shared what I went through and stuff like that. I never had pornography addiction. And even the dabbling in and out with it, like, one of the things that keeps me not to, and Katrina and I both have connected, because we're both not anti the other person doing that at all. It's like, whatever. But what we realize is like our sex and intimacy is, like, our sex and intimacy is, like,

is so much better if the other person doesn't. And we know each other so well that you know if the other person did. So it's like, what, dude? Come on. You know it's been two days. You know what I'm saying? It's like, oh, man, I couldn't help. It was just a rough day.

I needed it. Like, so we've talked about that so many times in our relationship that for a long time, it's just been like a, like a pack because it's like clear difference how the level. Well, that's everybody. That's with the data show. I mean, it is, it is like, it's not even in this, like, we are. no matter what, we have great intimacy and great sex. But it's like in another stratosphere when you're not, when the, when your partner,

the two of you are not doing that. It's like, well, the way that it wires the brain is pretty wild because of the novelty, because of the imagery, it desensitizes your brain so much that it will affect. It does factually affect intimacy with the partner. It's like, it's like using a drug and then going to something that's natural. your brain is wired for the drug. And so it completely affects. Well, I can only imagine like, okay, so again,

the reason why I share that is I think I, like Katrina and I have a very healthy, good relationship and like very, very positive. Like I see a difference even now. I can only imagine if we were struggling and going through things and that's kind of my outlet. And it's just like, man, that would just be compounding on how much harder it would make

the connection and the intimacy and our sex work. If I was, that was my outlet. outlet in addition to that. So I see how it can impact a very healthy, good balance relationship that doesn't have any issues going on. I can only imagine if we had other stuff going on. Well, here's what you see in the data from just normal, what they would consider normal users. Okay. Which, by the way, a significant percentage of pornography consumers are daily users. Okay. And daily would be considered like problematic. So I know a lot of people.

people listening right now are like, uh, uh, oh, is that really me? Um, reduced gray matter and reward areas of the brain. Lower volume in the stratium, especially nucleus acubans, uh, acubens and parts of the prefrontal cortex, similar to patterns seen in substance addictions. In other words, part of your brain is smaller, literally atrophies. There's downregulation of dopamine receptors. There's hypofrontality or weakened prefrontal control. desensitized and reduced sexual responsiveness, altered reward prediction error signaling,

craving and cue reactivity patterns, and changes in white matter connectivity. So from a health perspective, it has pretty, I mean, measurable effects. And we're not just talking about like, you know, questionnaire. If all this stuff has been studied and we know all the negative effects,

why is it that you have sex therapists that are pro pornography then? I don't know if they're anymore. I think they might have been, but I don't know if they could say that they are anymore. Oh, really? Yeah, I don't, I don't know. I think sex therapists will now say, like, this is actually a, it's not a good idea.

Oh, interesting. I didn't know that. Yeah. I was under the impression they're still all pro. I think you have people that are like, they call themselves like pro, what do they call themselves, like pro sex people? Yeah. Which really they're just, it's like talking to. They're just hyper-sexed, uh, trying to,

trying to sell you on some toys and shit. Like that's all I get out of those conversations. You know what it's like, bro? It's like when you talk to a pot head about the benefits of weed, you ever talk to a pot head? This is what I sounded like back in the day when I was, oh, it's got all these great benefits and, you know, it's good for this and it's good for that. It's like, whee, you're not it.

Yeah. Because it really just always amounts to the intimacy between the relationship, you know, and it's like you're not just going to get that from the visual aspect. And like, you know, yeah, for men. it's definitely a powerful draw, but it's not like, that's not what the, you know, the nucleus of the problem is. Well, I was listening to. That's why it was such an easy sell for me to nod. It's like it was such a clear difference with the intimacy with the wife. Bro, we didn't, we also didn't grow up with. Yeah. No, I know. I mean, I feel grateful for that because I, for sure, being a 16 year old boy, I would not have the. With an iPhone? Yeah. The self-discipline, no. Oh, God. No, I'd be an idiot. I'd be an idiot. So I, I'd be an idiot. So I, I,

And imagine the brain. So my, I have a, for the 20 year old listening right now, I have so much empathy for, uh, just not knowing, you know, because talk about trying to unwind that, trying to unwind a decade or more of that is. I was listening, so I was listening to this woman who was explaining, and she did such a good job.

Uh, she, I don't remember what her background was. I know it was a medical background, but she also talked about just the behavioral effects and cultural. And she said that sexual intimacy, uh, that, that the, act of sex or sexual release flows should come from intimacy, right?

So it's a result of intimacy. But what we've done is we've separated them and severed them so strongly that now what's happened is we think that they're separate. We objectified. It's totally separate. And or the sexual release, a lot of people, believe, leads to the intimacy. So they're like, I'm going to start here with someone, with a one night stand or hook or whatever, and hopefully it will lead to the intimacy.

Now, women are more aware of that. So women will often say, yeah, that's kind of what I'm looking for. A lot of guys are like, nah, but the reality is they are because when you really boil it down, and especially when they're in a relationship where they have real intimacy, they're like, yeah, dude, I don't want to go back to what it was like before. But we've severed. We've totally separated the two as if they're supposed to be. What do you mean by that?

What do you mean we've separated, though? There's like sexual release and then there's intimacy. Sexual release is supposed to be a result of intimacy, not by itself, not without any intimacy. So it's like we've taken the, it's like what we've done to process food. The enjoyment of eating, which should flow from nutrition and nourishment and connection. Now it's just all about hyper-pallitability. What does processed food do? Okay, I get rid of it.

of disease. Yeah. You know, although we haven't completely separated them. We've done a decent job with food, but with pornography, it's totally separate. There is no intimacy.

There is no relationship. It's only stimulation. It's only sexual, personal, you know, gratification release with nothing else. Yeah, which is very,

very damaging. And again, the data on this is super, super well. What do you say? It was like, just like three times a week was problematic. Yeah.

Right? Yeah. even. I'm like, I've been known to do that before. I mean, I know it's not hard for me to stop.

One time is, well, is enough to change the, the level of intimacy that we have, 100%. It's like, it's a joke in our relationship.

Like, we talk, like, we'll call somebody out. Like, like, we have like, you're only rule.

You're only allowed to masturbate if one of us is traveling. Like, you're out of town for a week. Like, okay, you get a pass. But if I'm in town,

we're in town together. It's the area code rule. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, I don't do that. Yeah, yeah. No, it's wild.

And, you know, talking to, I was talking to some friends the other day who were doing this, like, it's like a high school ministry. So they talk to kids about sex and this and that. And we were talking and they're like focusing on all the scare stuff. I'm like, you said, you guys, you can't scare kids into not doing this kind. It's never worked for thousands of years. No. I said, talk to them about what they're missing out.

Yeah. Not that's scary. Yeah. You can get pregnant. That's all true. they know that already hasn't stopped them tell them about what they're missing out that's what tells me that's like how amazing

it is on the other side on the other side well one of the things I was pointing out was like you look at the data on I wish I knew this you know before people who report the the most satisfied or the best satisfaction from their sexual

sex lives are married couples they're old who are in their 60s yeah they're old yeah okay that's way outside of what you would think. Because the world sold you that it's about how young you are. Yeah, you would think it would be prime young 20s, one-night stand. Yeah, lots of promiscuity and craziness.

Shrews you also how long it takes for you to really find those buttons. That's a true thing. Fucking 40 years it took me to figure that one out. 40 years. Finally nailed it. You know, you figure it out. Up, up, down, left, right.

Every slick start. Why'd you just tell me that? Everybody from the 90s knows that code. The Konami code. Contra. Yeah, you're finally a master. Yeah. You're finally a master.

Anyway, I was reading this study on strength training comparing eccentric to concentric training. Yes. It was really interesting article. So if I were to tell you guys... This is going back and forth, by the way, the science. So if I was to tell you guys, which one causes more muscle damage? Okay, so everybody has stored, like all the science and literature had pointed to the eccentric.

But that's also comparing a four second negative to like a regular one or two. What we know now is they're equal. Well, so here's what I was reading, kind of along those lines, that number one, people don't practice eccentric. So the second they practice it, it's a novel. Yep. Messes them up. Of course. Here's the other one, too.

The load is never the same. Whatever you can do concentrically, you can add, I don't know what it is, like 20% or 40%. No, it's way more now. It's like double. Or double. Yeah, you can double, you can take, you can. It's a big percentage. You can lower twice as much as what you can lift.

Is that what it is? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, of course it's going to hurt more, you know, because you're using way more load. Yeah. If you control for that, it's all the same. Yeah, that's what, so we've always been like all the books and stuff you read back in our starting time, right? It was like the eccentric does all the extra damage. But that's the point right there.

It's like, yeah, well, you're slowing it down and you could do more low. Do you guys remember? They used to make these machines. I don't, I haven't seen them. I haven't seen them since. But in the late 90s, when I was working in gyms, they used to have these, and I think it was, I want to say Nautilus made them, I'm not sure.

But you could low, it was an electronic resistance. So there wasn't a weight stack. So you type in the number. So let's say I would bench press 150. When I'd press, it would be 150. But then it would automatically adjust to lower with a much heavier weight. Do you guys remember those machines?

No, not those. I mean, you can do the tonal kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah, the total kind of does that. So you know what sucked about those machines? What? The second that would change directions, the weight would hit. Yeah.

It would suck. Abrupt. You're like, I haven't used that before. Yeah. Oh, you have? Yeah, dude. I haven't done like legit, eccentric training in so long.

It requires partners. It does. Like, I can't, I'm not going to do it about it. It's also so like, I mean, all this stuff is novel and so cool. It's like, I mean, I don't know, at least my training is you got, it's so much more simple today than it was. I just get so much further with just frequently doing like the right thing. Yeah.

I mean, like it's so my mindset at my age now. It's just like, what is the least amount of things I can do? What's the least amount of things I can do to maintain this health and strength thing that I want? It's like trying a bunch of novel shit. Yeah. Like, what do I care? This works. It's tried and true.

Yeah. I'm going to. I feel good afterwards. I think I'd like to try. I think what I want to do, the only thing is a pain in the butt. But I think I'd like to do eccentric squats. Like go in there, rack it up. Bring it out and just lower it to the rack and then get out.

I mean, I tell you what, if you do, I mean, I remember doing those. And it was a big, obviously it was the first time. So, of course, novel and probably made the biggest difference. I probably would have those safety racks. But just. Narely. Loading something that you can't technically squat. Right.

You can't go up. Yeah, exactly. You could lower. Yeah, just lower it real control. What it? Just for everything else, I guarantee you'll hit a PR after that. Yeah. I guarantee you will.

Just like doing that. Sold. You have serious. Like you'll hit up, you'll, if you, like you put, I don't know what's like really heavy for it. You put five plates on there and you, and you, you train lowering it for a couple weeks. And then you decided to go for a PR, you'll hit a PR. There's something too psychologically. Yes.

It's just getting over, giving that feeling of, oh, I'm, yeah, I'm bringing down more than I could ever come up and you get comfortable with that. So then when you go to the PR weight, it's lighter than what you were, and then you find a way to get out of that. I mean, that's half of what I was battling. I remember trying to do this PR for, you know, push press. And it was like just holding the weight initially was crushing. And you're like, dude, what am I doing? Like, it's just a psychological mind fuck. Yes.

And split press. Yes. Dirk breast. I'm such a dick. You got it wrong. As if I can even support it at the top. I will never talk. You never run a straight.

My back foot was like crooked. Doesn't count. Yeah, obviously you're unstable. Yeah. So, tusha. Fair enough. I hate it when people talk crap. They couldn't even do.

I've seen videos. I've seen videos criticizing, like, Ronnie Coleman's, like, deadly. Dude, yeah. I knew people were full of shit once we had, like, Mike Salemi, who's, like, the most accomplished kettlebell person I've ever met. So we were talking shit about Mike? They were talking shit about his technique and form when we were doing, like, he was teaching me, like, techniques. And I was looking at the comments. And I'm like, this is wild, dude.

Where are you getting your information from? Yeah, like, I want to look to it. And I look through it. And they have nothing, you know, no, like, backgrounds even, like, back their claims. You know, we have this big, this big 10-year anniversary thing that we're doing this year, right? Oh, so excited. I know, I'm excited to. You know what I wish we would have done?

I wish we would have kept every negative comment from each that was said about each of us. And it would have played that on part of our thing. Oh, that would have been hilarious. You guys have one that stands out to you? That's just like weak chest? That's mine. Bro, I have so many. I can't think of the one.

It's so school, you know, dude, bully. Somebody got me really good one time. What did they say? It was a really good insult that it got me good. What did they say? We repeated it for a long time, too. Like the weak chest one. It was like ones that have stuck around for a while that like somebody said something that was like really good.

Yesterday I was sitting down with that. I don't want to encourage this, by the way. I know we're talking about this now. We're going to get a bunch of shit. We're going to get plenty of... Because you know why? Because it took me a long time to, like, realize that a lot of them were actually, like, fans of the show that were just kind of joshing with you.

And it's just like, you know, they come in hot. So you just fire back and you realize, hey, man, big fan of the show. Owned all the programs. It was like, oh, fuck. Sorry, bro. Just came in hot. You know what I'm saying? You need give me a warm-up, what up, bro, before you came at me, you know?

I had that... I just had a conversation. with Jessica yesterday because we were sitting on the couch and I'm like, I'm like, no, to be honest with me, babe. She already rolls her eyes. She's like, all right, what are you going to ask me? I'm like, is it really, is it disproportionate?

My chest disproportionate. You can be honest. We're safe here. I actually had a comment under the series I'm doing. Someone, they're lying. This is not true. But underneath it, they're like, it's actually a strong body part on you. It's not a weak.

I'm like, all right, thanks, buddy. Lying is worse. You can say it's improved. Thanks, Mom. It's like so much, your calves are huge, dog. Stop it. It's a lot. Come on, bro.

I want to hear about, this sounds to me when I read when your notes here, Justin. It sounds like an urban dictionary like thing. Which one are we talking about? Navy SEALs goggles. Oh, yeah. Does that sound like a- It sounds like a technique? You've tried the dirty sentence.

You guys haven't? You guys haven't done this? Have you tried the Navy SEAL's goggles technique? It's great, dude. It does sound like that. What is that? No. I saw this cool video, and it was this guy that was, like, describing, well, he actually went down into one of those pools and showed how without goggles he could, he was able to see clearly, like, because they had to find, like, I don't know if it was like some kind of nut and bolt and something.

Oh, yeah, that's part of their training. Part of their training. At bottom of the pool, they have to, like, put together. Put together something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So. And he was, like, I'd claim he could do without any goggles.

and so he goes down there and he just basically blows air and bubbles and holds his hands like this over his eyes. Shut up. And then the bubbles come up and they kind of glue to his face like this. What? And it creates this like weird like, you know, air pocket. That's cool. And so he's looking down like this with this air pocket like bubble. I thought it was like some guy or shit. I never even thought of that.

You know, like I wonder if it works. I want to try it. Can you come on, Doug, Google away. I want to see if that's true. That is cool. I've never seen. I feel like I would have seen that on. TikTok or on Facebook or on Instagram with something. I was like, man, why hadn't I seen this before? That just seems like such a... To keep them from both not popping would be insane.

Yeah, he just had his hands like kind of shielded over like this. So the bubbles will stop right here and he could look through. So he's blowing... So he has to be blowing his nose. You don't have to close this off, though. Wouldn't you have to close from your nose? No, no, no. They just go up because they flow up.

They're not going to come out that way. Apparently, it's real. It is. Boom. Yeah, I'm going to try it. And report back. Because you know, you never know What I might have to put some bolts

Some bolts together at the bottom of my pool I don't know It's called an air bubble mask Let me see it That's what it's called I want to see it You want to see it You want to see a...

I'm gonna try this Okay I can play a video I'm not a bath guy anymore I don't have Make this a bedroom technique I don't know Why don't you take the bathroom So the I only have one bath

And it's one of those spare bedroom Or spare bathroom So when I was going through My whole withdrawals thing I did take a bath one time. I had never been in that thing. And Katrina got it all ready for me. And she's like, I don't know if you can use it.

I don't know the last time you've been in like a little bath. Oh, they're tiny, bro. It's like, I can only get, you know, either my legs wet or my upper body. So I'm like, see. Watch this. Oh, look at that. Wait, it works, dude. Let's see, let's see it.

Get down there. Okay. It smashes over. Okay. Here's how we're going to do it and then do it. Wow. I don't see the bubbles. This is a terrible video.

That's the view of seeing the one that I've seen. Wow. That's cool. Anyways. We'll give it a shot. Yeah. I believe the video. Dude, they dive deep without anything.

It's crazy. Did you ever watch that documentary? No. Oh, that's a good documentary. No, no, it's called Free Dive or something. It was a really good documentary. The World Record Holders of, like, it's crazy how far down there. They are real deep.

I don't know if I ever told you guys this, but although I'm a terrible swimmer. I'm going to hold your breath for a long time. I don't know why. You can't. A long time. Did you use to do a lot work for me? I don't know why. It was just, I remember I learned this as a kid. I took swimming lessons as a kid. Yes, free diver. And they told all of us to hold our breath underwater and I smoked everybody. I am like the worst swimmer. So I think that's probably part of it. When we were kids, we used to have challenges. How many times back and forth on the pool length could you go without taking a good swimer too? You swim better than me, dude. Well, I mean, I can swim. It's just like, you know, Does that Justin swims better than you?

You have a heavy butt, that's all. Dysink, dude. He should not, yeah, he should, like a tugboat. He should not be able to, he should not be able to swim better than you. I don't, I'm just, you have a bird. You have, like a nice, like, what? He just doesn't practice. You should be able to go through the water like this.

Like a boat, you know what I would say? You should have just parked the water hell easy, dude. Kick your narrow waist. You should be fun. I got the floating raft. In the bottom. No, I just, I'm not a good swimmer, dude. I think I get a little anxiously.

You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's not comfortable. You know, like, you know, when my feet can't touch the bottom? Do you think you had, like, did you have a traumatic thing when your kid? You know, it's crazy? I used to be, I used to not mind at all. But my mom is terrified of, of swimming, terrified.

So she won't go in the water below, like, if it's, like, above her way, she's like, not, I don't know if it, like, inherited imprinted on you. Something. I wouldn't be surprised. This is something I always give Katrina hard time. It's like, Katrina's, like, terrified of bees. Because she claims to be allergic. to bees, right? So I don't know if there's a lot of proof

for that or not, but she says that she's allergic to bees, right? So if a bee is in the backyard anywhere, she's, ah, and runs in the house, I go. And only because my son has seen that, he's like that now. And I'm like, Max, you're fine. I was like, it doesn't even hurt that bad if it stinks you. It's not a big deal. But because of that, I'm like, yeah, so I'm always trying to get onto it. I'm like, can you calm down just a little bit when you see a bee? Definitely, because my son is now going to be terrified

to bees because you're terrified. So I try and play with them when they're around. Like, look, they're fine. You know what I'm saying? It doesn't even hurt that bad. It's not a big deal. But you see him getting that way because he sees his mom like that. I think things can imprint on it. For sure. I watch it.

I'm watching it happen. Because my mom was also terrified of spiders. Although I'm not that bad anymore. I had to learn to not be scared of spiders because I'm a man. My wife will smash him. But my brother, you guys know my brother. He's a big dude. Bro, you put the tiniest spider next to him.

He will move like you've never seen before in your life. He will jump and move. I've seen them jump off a bike. He was on his bike and there was a spider on a handlebar? I think that's... And he jumped off. That's what makes spiders is because of how small they are. I am less...

So a big tarantula will creep me out way less than a little tiny little stuff. Really? So if you're driving in a tarantula... Yeah, so we grew up... I think he's going to jump on me. So October season is when they all come out, right? And I grew up where they used to be everywhere. And we'd let them crawl on us.

So I'd let a trantula crawl on my arm. But a little spider in my house, I do not like. Have you seen those videos where there's like, it looks like a, looks like a furry wall. And then they tap it and it's, bazillions of a little spider. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you seen that? This is in Australia where they had those where it was just like, just blankets of webs.

And it was just like all in the bushes, all in the power lines and all this. Like, it just happens a couple times a year or something where they like, they breed. And it's like this crazy like. Is Australia have the worst? Too much. Yes. Yes. I think it was Australia.

Remember when we talked about this, we talked about this years ago. Going to Australia? Yeah. And we talked about spiders and so that. And somebody sent in a picture of a spider carrying a rat up a lot. And that was enough for me. I'm done. Never going there.

That's enough for me right there. A spider carrying a rat? Like, doesn't even make sense. That's not supposed to happen. No, it's not supposed to happen. It's like crazy, man. Are you guys all stocked up on your Z biotics for the holidays? No, I just ran out and I need to get some.

I'm actually ordering some because, yeah, I've gone through this is not crazy. We're sponsored by them. I know. I am ourselves. This is where we're at now. Yeah. Who's doing the sponsor? It's because of the staff, dude.

It's because of staff. They all send us stuff for free, but now you got, what do you got, 20 something people in here? Plus, are they taking them all? Well, I make the mistake of hyping it up to all my friends, too. And then they're like, they come over and they're like, oh, this is what you're talking about? And they just grab them. Well, it works. It really, it really works.

I'm still shocked that they don't. that bars don't carry them. I thought I heard them say they were getting into some. Are they? I thought I heard that. Yeah, I think a few do. Now,

I don't know if they're actively pushing. It's silly for bars not to because, I mean, it would increase the amount of drinks they would probably sell if they were to do that. Yeah. I think it would be really smart. Nightclubs or something.

Yeah. I think it would be great. But anyway, I think the reason, I mean, I know they were always so careful about that. Like, they're not trying to promote,

like, Ben's drinking or lots of drinking. Well, it's trying to go together. Not the binge drinking. but alcohol in. I know. Well, that's what it's for,

right? So did you, have you ever followed up on them on like, because they were, the last time we had talked to them, they did that because it was like, easy.

Remember, they're, they're in the whole, genetic modifying. Oh, yeah. Remember, like, that was like,

it was like low-hanging fruit was why they started to come so they could fund all the other projects that they were going to do. I haven't talked to them. But I remember there's some stuff I can't talk about on the pipeline.

They have the sugar to fiber product. How can we haven't tried that? Doug did. We have. We had. We all got it. You take it, you eat sugar, it converts it to fiber. For real.

Have you tried it? I've tried it. Doug's tried it. Yeah. It's great for regularity. Seriously. Yeah, dude. I'd like to try that because I take a lot of sugar.

You don't need regularity right now. Huh? I said you don't need regularity. No, no, no, no, no. That takes a lot, dude. Sorry, I don't mean to put you up last. You know, he's speaking of that. No, my son, my son, Pete his pants at school, right?

And we get a call. That happens. Listen, though, if we get a call, and I was with Katrina. She's like, oh, my God, school called right now. I said, what, what's going on? She's like, Max didn't make it to the bathroom. And I'm like, what? I'm like, okay, weird.

And she's like, I'm going now. I'll be back. So she goes to pick him up. And, you know, I'm wondering like, oh, man, did he get embarrassed? Is this going to be, like, a traumatic thing? So I actually, like, I greet them at the, I see him pull up in the driveway and I get out and want to see if he's doing okay. And he climbs out and he's like at these, like, some of the kids, high water. her pants on and stuff like that.

He's like, you know, all the chipperies and he goes run up. Hey, dad. I was just like, how was school, buddy? I was good. It was like, anything happened? No, oh, I peed my pants. And I was just like, what happened? He's just like, oh, I didn't make it.

It's not a big deal. And he just walked back. That's great. I looked at Katrina and she just kind of like, she just shrugged me off. Wow, that's great. Yeah, she goes, she goes, I try to talk to me. He just kept telling me, mom, it's not a big deal. I just, I didn't make it in time.

I was, you know, I was playing in the sand, Fox and I held it too long and she's like mom it's not a big you kept telling her it's not a big deal she's like all right it's not a big deal yeah yeah I was ready for him to be kind of like well yeah because that could no no I thought about that you know like so uh again probably my own Justin never lived that down when he was

yeah I was also a senior known as peepie boy I was I was totally prepared to like hey it's okay buddy like accidents happen hey next to like the whole dad's speech and be there for him that's why I met him at the door and he just walked right past me it's like that's awesome Yeah, no big deal, Dad. Oh, man. He's wearing these little tiny pants of so hilarious.

That's so great. Wow, real hell of funny. That's so great. He's too much. Probiotics have been shown in studies, not just to improve digestion. They do, but they also improve the health of your skin, athletic performance, strength, recovery, mental state. Probiotics are effective. The world's best probiotic is seed.

All the rest suck. Seed is the best. Go to Seed.com. forward slash mind pump. Use the code 20 mind pump, get 20% off. Our first caller is Stephanie from Ontario. Hi, Stephanie. Hello.

Hello, how's it going? We're good. How can we help you? Good. So I've adjusted my question a little bit because I've had a bit of an update, but I will just go right into it. So I've been a listener for about five years now, and I absolutely love your show.

It's completely changed my relationship with health and fitness, and I follow all of your programs, and even got my dad to change his lifestyle, thanks to you guys. He used to be the Atkins diet's biggest fan, and now he's no longer afraid of carbs. A bit about my journey, I've been an athlete all my life, but always struggled with my weight being taller and bigger than most of the other girls.

Over the years, I've done a few bulking and cutting cycles, have been able to get down to around 21% body fat, and that's where I would ideally like to maintain somewhere in and around those low 20s. The challenge is, at the end of my cuts, I really don't want to track everything that I eat. So I typically track up to around maintenance and then I'll stop tracking and weighing myself because it just feels like a bit of a negative relationship.

And then inevitably, my body fat always tends to creep back up. So I guess the update is that I ended a cut in March and decided to reverse back up to maintenance. And then over the summer, I was no longer tracking. And I'd say my body fat now is probably around 25%. originally I planned to do a bulk for the last three months of the year but like Adam talks about I actually hit a place where I was just kind of like tired of eating wasn't really hungry or having too many cravings or anything so which I had never actually experienced so I figured it'd be a good

time to start a cut so this is probably the longest I've spent out of a cut in a while so at the start of November I began a cut eating around 1900 to 2,000 calories with 150 to 160 grips of protein I'm currently running map symmetry on phase two. I'm still not weighing myself, but I am tracking my food. So my current plan is to continue cutting till probably around Christmas, take a week or two break over the holidays, and then go back into a cut for maybe around seven or so weeks. For context, I'm 510.

I play soccer one to twice a week. Strikes training three to four times a week, 8 to 10 K steps, 150 to 160 grams of protein. I do have PCOS managed with birth control. And yeah, feel better eating higher fat, which is like 70 to 80 to grams minimum. I like this plan. Yeah. I like this.

I like this plan a lot. You're doing great. I think you're doing phenomenal. You're doing great. By the way, a lot of times, I'm not surprised that you do better on a higher fat. Oftentimes women with PCOS do better with a lower carbohydrate, higher fat approach. And the exercise you're doing is perfect. Strength training is great for that.

One of the thing I'd like to comment on is, so let me ask you this. When you're feeling healthy, what I mean by that is like you're consistent, diet is good, workout is good, but you're also mentally healthy about it. You don't feel like you're controlling everything, tracking everything. Like you just feel good in the kind of when you imagine that sphere of health. Yep. Where does your body fat, if you were to guess, where does your body fat, fat percentage tend to like to maintain? Probably this like 24% and that's not tracking.

Yes. So in the reason, like I'm glad, I'm so glad I asked this question. So in my experience, female athletes, especially strong athletes, their body fat percentage when they're all healthy and doing everything. It tends to sit in the kind of low to mid 20s, which by the way is a healthy body fat percentage. And now give or take, right? There's this individual, variants. Like some women will sit leaner, other women will sit a little higher. But that's a great, that's a great place to be. It's fit. It's healthy. You're strong. Your hormones are balanced. You're not like obsessing about food. You don't feel stressed about it. And so that's probably where, and that's a great place to be. And so the reason why I'm communicating this is don't get too

caught up with the, I got to get down to 20, 21% body fat. You're talking about a three, four percent difference, which, you know, and you've got to ask yourself, is it going to be worth the, you know, the mental, you know, stress about it because. And also the potential lack of performance. That's right. Because, yeah, you know, we could technically cut down to 1,800 calories for longer and be stricter. And, you know, and then, okay, maybe you shut off another percent or two body fat. But then, you know, then does soccer suck? You know? And do you feel like you're, like, restricting all day long? And so you're just. thinking about food and it's like, I mean, yeah, we could do that. But you're in a very healthy, good place right now. You have a great plan the way you're going about this. Yeah, I think you're in a really good place. Yeah.

So there's this kind of genetic, you know, fit and healthy body fat percentage range. And there's a range there because for some people it's leaner and for some people it's a bit higher. And it's your healthy range. And so if you're sitting at like 24 and you're like active. and you're strong and you can play soccer and you feel like you're kicking butt and you're not like stressed over your diet

and stuff like that. You're just like really have this good quality of life. Like that's great. Like go for it. In fact, I feel like aesthetically like being lower, which I feel like probably everybody. Yes. You know what we've done, Stephanie,

is we've placed this aesthetic quote unquote ideal, which is, oh, it's always so funny to me how it's always 3% away from where you like to be healthy or whatever, right? But we've taken this aesthetic, quote unquote, ideal, and we've elevated it above where it should be. And so we've sacrificed all these things that are more valuable, if you really look at it, to you, than just this, like, how much better of a quality of life do you have when you're at 21% body fat, but you're also tracking and stressed about your life with the food, right? So is it really a better quality of life? No, it's not.

So that's just the thing that, you know, I want you to think about. when you're doing this. And then here's a little kicker. Here's where I'm going to sell it to you. If you start to get comfortable in this kind of zone, oftentimes people do get a little leaner. Because what kind of happens is this bouncing up and down while we're playing with it. And then when people kind of settle into this healthy kind of place,

then what usually happens is you see a little bit of body fat loss anyway. Okay. Yeah. And then what would you guys suggest? So let's say I, you know, go through the maintenance cut or maintenance for two weeks after Christmas and then continue to cut. And then I'm around, again, that low 20s. Would you suggest doing like slowly maintain and then every couple months add a couple hundred calories to get my maintenance up from there? Sure.

Yeah. Sure. If you want to. Okay. And then do you have a suggestion on which program to follow after symmetry? Oh, gosh. I like power lift and strong. Okay, I've never done either of those ones.

I have aesthetic, muscle mommy, and anabolic. You know what? You probably would really like strong. Yeah. I bet you would like strong. Let's send that to you. Okay. How many days a week is that one?

I think it's, I believe it's four or five. Well, it's five, but that's because of the work sessions. So there's like two workouts and three work sessions. Foundational and the rest of their work. So in other words, if you are also playing like soccer or something, you could literally cut the work sessions out and just do the three foundational days. So it's like three foundational days. Then we have the two work session days.

If you're doing some other sport or activity, you can modify and drop the work session forever. So if you got two days of soccer, drop the two work sessions. You've got one day of soccer, drop one of them. You can totally do that. Okay, cool. And then in terms of cardio, I typically just add like maybe 10 minutes on the Stairmaster at the end of my workouts. Do you guys think that's? Totally fine.

Totally fine. Good enough, not pushing. Okay, cool. No, you're good. I mean, how do you feel on the soccer field? How's your performance? Since adding quite a bit more muscle, it's definitely different. But it's kind of cool.

But it's still good. I think I should, I probably need to get my cardio up a little bit more for soccer right now. You could do those 10 minutes of Stairmaster, do more like interval training for those 12 minutes. Yeah. So like hit style, hit style cardio post workout. would be great, especially the way soccer is, where you have just bouts of sprints like that. And so you could do those bouts of sprints in a short 12-minute win-on. You'll get some good benefits just from that.

By the way, the things that you're doing is great. Everything you're doing is good. I'm just talking about the mindset around it, which I think you're heading in that direction anyway. Yeah. I think sometimes you hear, like, obviously, I listen to you guys and you've listened to other callers and stuff and you're like, oh, does that apply to me? and you kind of like I don't want to deviate my plan too much.

So I just wanted to, I guess, confirm it's right. Yeah, no, you're good. Doing great. Yeah, you're doing great. We're doing great. We're sitting strong over to you. Okay, awesome. Thanks so much, guys.

You got it. Bye-bye. Yeah, that was good. Do you think to, you know, because she's talking only about like two, two or three percent. I know. And with birth control and autoimmune, how much water await you think she holds on a regular basis? I mean, it depends on what it, you know, it depends on the person.

But, because in my experience, someone who's got. autoimmune and taking birth control pills. Yeah. You got just that layer of what they think is fat is just water retention a lot of times. Could be. You know, it's interesting. I'm like, okay, so, you know, where I was getting at with her is oftentimes you take someone like this and you get away that little bit of stress over cutting bulk and cutting

bulking and they settle, they tend to get leaner. Yeah. It just tends to happen rather than the ping pong, you know. But she's not extreme. She's doing good. No, all your body. It actually acclimate. Great plan.

I think she has a great plan. Yep. Our next caller is Emily from Colorado. Hi, Emily. Hello. Hi, guys. Thank you so much for taking my question. And just first and foremost, I just want to thank you guys for all you do.

I've been listening to y'all since 2021. And you have become my North Star when it comes to health and fitness. So thank you so much. Thank you so much. How can we help you? Great. Yeah, so I'll just read my question as I wrote it here. I hear a lot of conflicting information on the usefulness and safety.

of Astagrass squats. How do you know if it's safe to do so? If I'm able to do it unweighted, does that mean it's safe to try with weight? I'm asking this because I'd like to improve my squat depths, but I definitely have ankle mobility issues and chronic knee pain probably as a result, but I've noticed elevating my heels does help a lot. I'm able to get all the way down. So is it best to start with lifted heels with the goal to eventually not need that or should I just avoid squatting altogether and only work on my ankle mobility. Good question. Great question.

You can do what I do. So I just don't mow my lawn for a long time. And it's easy to go ass to grass. I just go barely down. All right. So it's definitely a mobility issue. You've pointed it out. Yeah, we'll send you.

Sorry. Do you have Prime Pro? I don't. Okay. So Prime Pro and use the ankle and hip mobility movements in there. Practice them once or twice a day every day. watch the videos, and then as, so practice those regularly.

And then when you squat, range of motion is very important, but it has to be range of motion that you can own and control. Strength and supported range of motion. If you move outside of the range of motion that you can control and support with good stability, good strength, you are now in the realm of injury. So as to grass is only good if you can own that. If you can't, do not do it. But if you can elevate your ankles and you can own it and make a squat look really good just by elevating it, which by the way happens a lot.

There's so many clients that I had. It's common. That couldn't do a good astogras squat, but it was because their ankle mobility was so bad. But as soon as I elevated their heels, they could drop right down. It looked beautiful. Everything looked good. So what I would do is I would ask the grass squat with them with heels elevated while we worked on those mobility drills. So that just becomes a ritual for you.

And do that as much as you can. Like every day, if you can, multiple times a day, and for sure, before you always squat. Like so mandatory, always before you squat. I'm doing my hip and ankle mobility. That's a bare minimum. But then I'm trying to do it every day as many times as I can, even if it's just a five minutes, get down on the ground, do some of my 1990s, do some of my combat. The more frequency you do, those mobility drills, primarily combat stretch in 1990s, is going to open those hips up, get you better connected and also get you greater range of motion in the ankles. And then eventually you can peel the heel raise out.

But doing it simultaneously is totally okay. Because there's also value in getting your hips and the rest of your body comfortable with that deep range of motion while you're still working on those things. Good point. The more you can actually like add and infuse more isometric tension at the bottom of the squat and that being the focus for you, the more likely you're going to be strong and stable in that position, which is where we can start thinking about loading it. And I think, too, like even slowly and gradually adding load, but then still working on that pause squat. So down at the bottom, I'm really emphasizing that muscle recruitment process. And then you'll feel a lot more comfortable and confident going astogra. Yeah, it's a mistake that you might make with Prime Pro is you'll watch the video and just copy the movement.

Be very – It's all about the cues. Be very careful to listen to the video and the cues, how you activate. your body and muscles in the pose or in the movement makes all the difference in the world. So just watch the videos associated with like combat stretch is probably going to be good for you. And in the 1990 variations will probably be good for you. But there's others. So when you're doing it, watch the video, listen to the cues and in, and do what the cues are telling you. That'll make all the different. What's my prime pro video, Doug, call? Where's the webinar? Primepro webinar.com.

So you go out for anybody who doesn't have it. So watch that. Yeah. But even if you do like I think what I did on that a little bit better than what we did in the prime pro program is what you just said. And so on the prime pro webinar, which is free. So we'll send you the program and then we'll send you and then go to the prime pro webinar. com and go to that webinar I did. And in there, I'm coaching through the whole thing. So you can hear me telling you, intensify it, drive your knee into the floor. And so you get the coaching kind of with it. I do recommend going through that with me because then you'll get kind of like the idea of like, oh, okay, this is a isn't just like a yoga stretch when you do this. You're supposed to be working in these in these movements. But, and also, um, squat shoes are a decent investment unless you got like a, unless the gym has a nice little heel raise that you can just go, foam one or one of those nice ones. Or if you're having to, like,

put plates underneath your shoes all the time, you know, I'd buy some, some squat shoes. And when I, when I'm squatting, I'd bring them with me. And, and I'd continue to work on my ankle mobility. And then yeah, it'll come together. Okay. Yeah, I'm currently, I work out at home. So I'm using, plates and it does kind of add a little extra time that I don't particularly like spending doing so I might consider, yeah, getting some squat shoes. I wasn't sure if I was kind of going down the wrong path by elevating my heels and practicing that without doing mobility. So it's good to know I can do both at the same time. Yes. And I'm essentially doing it with like basically no weight. I don't have a standard bar or I don't have an Olympic bar so my bar is only 15 pounds.

That's fine. So I'm doing it with that just an empty bar and feels. okay. But yeah, I just wasn't sure if I was going to end up injuring myself because I don't have that mobility. No, no, you're good. Yeah, you follow prime pro mobility, those movements, keep practicing the squat, just be safe. And you'll progress. You'll see it intentional with it. Yeah, you're doing a good job. I will tell you this, though, there's an interesting thing that I find unique to squatting, that there's this, when you start to load it, and I'm not saying like, load it so heavy, you're scared to squat down in it. But all of a sudden, once you put a good amount of weight where your core has to stabilize and you have to really posture.

Your form gets better. So if I literally to this day with all the years I've been squat, if I go out there and do a 135 squat, it'll look worse than my 225 squat. And it's just because as soon as I get about 225 on my back, my body goes, okay, we've got some weight on there. Even though it's not mad, it's enough for me to go, okay, I need to really tense up.

And that's so important to a good squat. And so I do recommend at one point you kind of loading it a little bit to where you kind of get that feeling. You don't need to go so crazy you feel scared. But enough to where it's like, oh, this is a good amount of weight that I got to move. And you'll find it interesting how your body naturally kind of goes, oh, I need to tighten up and tense up. And that's really good for squatting.

Okay. Okay. That's good to know. I've kind of wondered if maybe my knee pain could be because I only squat to parallel and I have for years. And I'm wondering if maybe because I haven't gotten strong in the full range of motion that that could be affected by it. It could be a few things. So it could be a few things. but knee pain oftentimes.

Where's your knee hurt? Yeah, let me know where it hurts. The inside area, essentially, like, if you're looking at the kneecap, it's kind of like on the inside of leg right below it. Okay, so that's probably coming from your ankle. Yeah, your knees are either probably doing this or there's tension going in that direction.

It is almost always when it's just like, unless you had an acute injury, it's almost always ankles or hips. Yeah. So, yeah, and the knee is just taking that stress because our ankles are weak and lack mobility and our hips are weak and lack mobility. Once you gain mobility, gain strength in those areas, it takes all the stress off the knees. It's incredible how that works. Yeah, it's been a long progress.

I've gone to an orthopedist and my PCP, even podiatrist to see if it could be related to, you know, I've got some feet issues too. But I haven't had any injury. It definitely occurred after having my baby back in 12. 2018 and about a year after that, I started working out again. And the knee pain came. So I went to physical therapy and they suspected it was from pregnancy and how it kind of changes your gate and your stance. So, yeah.

No, you're on the right path. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Thank you guys so much. You got it. All right, Emily. Thank you.

All right. Yeah, when it comes to what you said, Adam, where you add weight to the bar and if somebody. It's so wild how that is, right? Well, so if you're strong but tight, it'll help. But if you're weak and loose, it doesn't help. And I want to say that because sometimes someone could be like weak and like loosey-goosey and you add weight to them.

And it's, oh, right. Yeah, yeah. But like you or I, definitely me. I'm strong but tight. And so what happens is it'll force my ankles into mobility. It'll force me in a position because the weight to get you in position versus not. That's right. It also forces my upper posture to push my chest up high so the bar is balanced.

Super aware of where you're. My core has to tighten up because it's wanting me to fall. So it's a trip how much loading the bar on my clients I realize. And you don't have to load it crazy. Just to give them some feedback. Yeah. But if you, I mean, you tell me she's got a 15 pound bar on her back. That's like that's like nothing.

Yeah. She could do it. She could do at least a 45 pound bar. And that alone, that will kind of weight will make her body. kind of stiffen up a little bit. Our next caller is Kaye from Denmark. Kay, how you doing? What's happening? Hey, guys. So this is surreal. So I wrote this email because I feel like I'm at a crossroads on my fitness journey. I started working out as of January 2025 and I have been going at it consistently for 11 months. You guys have been a huge inspiration and driving force for me to

keep bettering myself. And with your help and guidance, I feel like I have achieved a far better physique than he had expected. I have just completed Maps Anabolic and have the entire RGB super bundle to go through, so that's very exciting. My driving force when I started out was football or soccer, as you call it in America. I love playing football, but since I was about 20 years old, I have weighed about 220 pounds, so playing the sport I love felt really difficult, so I ended up just stopping. My feet and legs wouldn't connect to my mind as I wanted to, and every turn, chop and burst of speed turns sour as my legs burned out from the attempts. I have now dropped down to 190 pounds, and I'm currently packing 97 pounds of muscle.

And when last on an in-body scanner, my butterfly percentage was at 14.8%. Although I think it's a little bit higher. Through my teens, I was very active playing football and volleyball, even playing volleyball at under 17s and under 19s for the Faroe East national team. I'm not expecting to go back to that level. I just want to feel athletic again. So here's my question to you guys. Is there any form of workout routine or diet that will get my feet and legs to act like I want them to

so that I can do like one chop and sprint away from someone without losing my balance or slowing down? or does my age of 32 just limit that factor? Well, I could, of course, try some stuff out myself and see, but I really want to hear what you guys have to say about it. My big dream now is to get to play one more completed season of football where I feel proud of myself and feel good on the pitch. Yeah, good. Good question.

Well, what's really cool is that if you got the Superbundle and you've just completed Anabolic, Nexus performance, which would be the foundational thing we would do first. and then probably progress you in that direction athletically. But that would lay a nice foundation in that pursuit. Yeah. Especially phase two. Kay, there's also, so this is a unique situation because you played at a high level.

So what you are referring to in terms of your performance, your benchmark is what you used to be able to do at a very high level. In other words, if you, if I were to take you out and test your athleticism right now, you would be remarkable. But compared to how you used to be, you feel slow and unresponsive. And I'm going to tell you, the best way you're going to get back to, if that's what you're looking for, it's not going to be gym workouts. Now, we can give you gym workouts that are athletic, but to make you feel the way you did before,

the best thing you could do is a little bit of strength training and a lot of playing. Yeah. Nothing is going to replace getting. on the field and playing in terms of giving you that feeling that you're looking for, that athletic feeling. So if I had you and we didn't have like a very, if you didn't say, hey, I need by this month and this, that and we had a nice time frame, what it would look like would be taking you through performance the way it's laid out.

And then after that, reducing to like a one day a week of it or like a mass 15 performance and starting to train and go practice to your sport. Because that'll lay a nice foundation of muscle. It's going to address some multi-plan. mobility stuff, a little bit of endurance training. It's going to lay a nice little foundation. And then we really start to ramp up the amount of sport that you're playing and reduce the time in the gym.

And honestly, all that volume is accounted for in performance advance. There's two major like foundational workouts per week. But it's the skills that's highlighted the most. And we don't talk about this a lot because there's not a lot of people like very much focused on their sport specific. you know, you can be intentional about getting faster, getting more responsive with organizing your body. So, you know, when you go to move, you're efficient with your movement, which there is, there is a lot of value in that, you know, that does translate immediately to

field play. And so if I were, and again, these skill training days aren't that long. So, you know, it could be anywhere from like 20 to 45 minutes. It's not going to, to be super fatiguing because it's the reps are very intentional. And so it's really just drilling. So if you want to like compare it to something, it would be like if I was practicing and drilling my specific movements. So I would recommend that. And then on top of that even like getting in again,

the actual gameplay in the movement of it and putting it all together. But you do lose that. You do lose that ability to meetly access that kind of like quick and powerful movement ability and control. Yeah, I'm assuming you're pretty tall. How tall are you? I am 180 centimeters. Yeah, what is that in feet, Doug?

He's a big guy, especially if you played on the national team for volleyball. I'm not very big. I could jump real high. Okay. I'm like, I think it's 511. According to this is 5-9. 180 is 5-9. You said 182.

Oh, 182. Okay, let me fix that. That's, yeah. Okay. You said 182? Okay. Well, all right. Nonetheless, so when you're...

510. Okay. So keep this in mind, right? That there's definitely a size component and a fitness component to what you're looking for. But there's also a skill component that you'll lose if you don't practice the skill often. Well, so I like what Justice said. I love what Justin said, but I think what matters difference in all of our advice right now

is that is when you want to do this. Like when do you want to be on the field again? Is it like by next summer? Is it like in a couple months? So right now we're out of season. Yeah. I'm playing once a week with my friends like an indoor game. So I'm keeping myself going.

And I'm actually, I am doing the maps performance right now. Okay. I'm in phase one. Okay. Because after Maps Anabolic, I felt that my body, after phase three, it like took a toll on me. I started feeling a bit of pain and something. And my endurance was really... Not there.

Yeah, not there, exactly. But I feel like I am getting to a place where I ran a 5K in 22 minutes the other month, last month. So my endurance is getting better. But the season starts in March, March, April. So reverse it, right? Justin, maybe January start, January, start advanced and just focus on power. Yeah. That's your skill.

So we'll say that would be great. Performance. Performance. Follow that in January. And then make sure you practice more soccer. And then diet-wise, eat for performance. Yeah. Okay.

So eat for performance. So whole natural foods, high protein. Make sure you get carbohydrates. Yeah. Get enough energy. And eat for performance. So judge your diet based on your performance, not on how you look. Mm-hmm.

Okay. But what he's doing, what he's doing right now is. great for right now. So what you're doing, running performance, playing soccer once a week to kind of maintain. And then in January is we're going to follow Justin's protocol, go to performance advance. That'll really ramp up the soccer and then play as much

soccer with it as you can. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Yeah, yeah. You can get it back for sure. Yeah. That's a good plan right there. Yeah, I would be very thankful if that would be the case. My last complete season I played, I think I was 21.

So it would be amazing if I could like stick to it. And the reason I stop is because I expect so much more of myself. And when I can't deliver, I get like, what do you call it? Discouraged. Discourished, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, welcome with the club. The one mistake that you could make, okay, is when you start to really pick up soccer more than once a week.

it goes to two, three times a week and you're practicing more, is to try and maintain the strength training along with it. Make sure you reduce that. So once you get to a place where you're playing, if you're playing soccer three times a week or more, the weight training needs to be one time. That's it. No more.

Okay. So that's the mistake that athletes will make, and that's where you'll get injured, is if you save the intensity for the sport. Yes. Right now, your plan's perfect. The mass performance, one day a week of soccer, January comes.

You're going to follow Justin's performance. It's advanced, but you start hitting soccer four times, three, four times or more a week. Scale back on the weight training should only be like one day a week. Yep. Okay, so it would be like a full foundational workout for like an hour or so. No, like three, four exercises. That's it. Yes.

Very, very minimal at that point. That is going to make you great on the field and protect you from getting injured. That's right. Your mistake that you could make that people make. Everybody makes. Is they try and keep the weight lifting routine up. and now they're playing soccer four days a week because they want,

and that's where they get hurt. That's right. Okay, so, so we're thinking like four compound movements or? Like three, three, four compound movements at most. Yep. Okay, cool.

Yep. Yep. And even at that, and even at modern intensity does not need to be going to fail. Don't be just because you're, now you're only doing one day. Don't go,

oh, I can go to failure because I'm only doing this one day. You're just trying to maintain the muscle and strength that you've built in the off season. You're not trying to progress in the gym. No. Trying to progress on the field. And it takes very,

It takes very little volume and intensity to maintain the muscle mass you built. So just you get in there, do those four good compound lifts, do it at moderate intensity. Get out. It's soccer time. That's soccer time. Soccer time. It's soccer time. You like that?

Well. I'd love to hear back from you, Kay. You'd be a fun person to talk to after January. So if you, yeah. Yeah, I love to circle back and hear how you're, here how it went for you. Yeah, of course. That would be very cool. Yes.

And I just have to say, like, I just started, it feels like I've just started working out. And to be here talking with you guys already, if you told me this a year ago, I would have told you to take a hike. This is really incredible guys. And I'm so thankful that you are willing to have me on. Of course, man. We'll have you back on. All right, Kay.

Perfect. Take it easy, brother. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Yeah, just athletic trainings totally. Just to put it differently. Okay.

And this is even more pronounced, the more advanced or more elite you are in athleticism, the more pronounce this. So just to illustrate this for people. Your bases are you there? If you took an athlete that was at a very high level, college level, definitely pro level, but like you're really good. And you increase their strength by 20%. Their timing is going to be off suddenly. Yes. So you have to match your strength gains.

All your gains. match the skill. The skill has to follow. Otherwise, it throws you off. And then suddenly, at that level, I'm stronger, but my timing's off a little bit. My performance isn't any better. It might even be worse.

Your conditioning, your endurance. It's totally different. Our next caller is Jessica from California. Hi, Jessica. How you doing? Hello. Hi. What's happening?

This is so wild. I know everybody says that when they come on. They're like, ah, this is so weird. I've been listening to you guys for a while, so it's really awesome. Thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate it. As most people do, I guess I will just read my email. It's quite long.

I hope you'll bear with me. Trying to provide all the relevant data and details in here. So here's my story. I'm a 49-year-old married, working mother of three. One of my kids is in college, but I still have a 14. year old and a nine-year-old at home. For many years, I was a serious long-distance runner and occasional triathlete. And I sort of lifted a little bit in there, but not seriously. I wasn't seriously weight training. I was also a yoga teacher in my 20s and continued to

practice yoga and Pilates as a complement to my running in my 30s and early 40s. My third pregnancy and perimenopause both kind of really threw me in for a loop. And among other, extremely annoying symptoms, I developed a lot of hip pain and tendinitis and had to take long breaks from running. And for the first time outside of pregnancy, I gained about 20 pounds. I finally had to give up running entirely and subsequently went all in on lifting about two and a half years ago. By the way, I was ultimately diagnosed with moderate hip dysplasia, laboral tears in both hips, and early signs of arthritis in both hips. So that's crappy. When I first got into lifting, I went for traditional lifts.

I actually started with strong lifts five by five, and I did try to chase the deep squat. But my ammo is going too hard. So I went too hard, too heavy, too deep, and I'm pretty sure that that led to more hip problems. I'm pretty sure that spring I got a new laboral tear. And so I kind of had to back off. I realized that, okay, after my diagnosis, like I have shallow hip sockets. So deep squatting may not be the best exercise for me. Another thing that I had to come to grips with was that pain means stop.

So as a distance runner, you get really good at ignoring pain and discomfort and powering through. So when things would hurt in the gym, I just was like, oh, that just means I have to work harder. So eventually I had six months of really good physical therapy with a great PT. I got into your podcast and I started trying to accept. to the gospel of rest. So now I try to focus on good form, rest and recovery, and I really am trying to work with my body rather than against it. As part of that, I realized I've been under eating for years.

That was just my lifestyle. Not too bad. You know, I wasn't eating like 1,200 calories a day, but I was definitely in a calorie deficit. And I, even up until last year, 2024, I know I was in a calorie deficit all year because I was tracking. I pretty much, I don't know if I was a deficit. Let's just say my maintenance was low, because I lived at 17, 1,800 calories a day, and I'm 5'7. So in January of this past year, I decided to try my first reverse diet. I made it up to about 2150 with a slow increase

over three months while I was running MAPS Anabolic. Then I did a little bit of a cut for about eight to 10 weeks, I cut back to 1800 and did performance 15. And then I switched to like a two day a week full body workout at around maintenance calories, like 1900-ish. So what I'm trying to do now is start, I just started muscle mommy a couple weeks ago and I'm trying to do another kind of bulk during this program. As an aside, I also walk about 9 to 10,000 steps a day. Like a low day for me would be about 8,000, a high day.

about 12,000. So it averages out to about 10,000. Let me give you some data from my Dexas scans. I've been getting approximately quarterly Dexas scans for about two years. So between December, end of December, 24, and a recent Dexas scan I had at the end of October, I have gained about seven pounds of lean mass. And I took my body fat percentage down from about 29.1 to about 28%. So a little bit of a decrease, even though technically according to my scan, I gained a little bit of fat,

like about 0.4 pounds of fat over that time. So I'm really pumped about the lean mass increase, even if it's not seven pounds, like if there's error, even if it was five pounds or four pounds, I think at 49 to gain that much muscle in a year or 10 months is pretty good. but I am frustrated by body fat percentage not really going down. I was, I realize now in the past that I was kind of skinny fat, like in January of

2024, I was at 33% body fat. So now that I'm at 28, like, that's better. But as much as I work out and as like as active as I am, my goal is to get more into the range of like 25%. I gained muscle everywhere. but especially in my arms and my back in my chest. I put a lot of details in the email, but the bottom line is I'm very strong in my upper body

and like I'm 90th percentile for lean mass for my age in my arms and my trunk. But my Dexascan says I'm in the 10th percentile of lean mass for my legs. Also, my fat percentage of my legs is much higher than my body overall. So I can tell I'm getting stronger. everywhere, and I'm happy about that. My shoulders, my arms, my back, they look awesome.

But progress is slower than I would like in both strength gains in the legs and in fat fat loss. Okay, I told you this is long. A lot of backcountry. Now I'm ready to get to my questions. So my first question is, considering my history of hip injury and having to modify a lot of leg stuff, what's the best way to go about building up my leg strength? I definitely have gotten stronger.

So I've gone from, for example, being able to only do body weight Bulgarian split squats to now I hold 30 pounds while I'm doing them for 12 wraps. Same for step-ups. I went from body weight step-ups to holding a 30-pound dumbbell. My hip thrust, I got up to 195. So I'm definitely getting stronger. But I can do more with my upper body. So for example, I can only do a sumo squat holding like 40 pounds, but I can understand. overhead barbell press 75 pounds. I can curl 22.5 pounds for reps with my biceps, but I'm only

holding 15s in each hand when I do Bulgarians. So it just seems nuts to me that I can do heavier weight in some of my upper body lifts than in my lower body. I'm doing muscle mommy, but it just doesn't seem like it has enough lower body work towards correcting this huge difference in body composition and strength between my upper and lower body. So how, if at all, can I modify the workout? Can I add substitute, you know, substitute in a lower body lift into the workouts or something just to get myself more balanced? Jessica.

Jessica, I love you. Yeah. So hold on. You're so great. Let me put this all in a nutshell first. Is that okay if I kind of summarize real quick? Yes. Yes.

You increased your calories. Body fat percentage went down. You got stronger. You built more muscle. Everywhere. Lots of, you had some injuries in both hips and lower body. And your, your MO is to overdo it. Yes.

Okay. What's the complaint? She wants to be more muscular. Hold on. Now, what's the complaint? I want to hear that. I just, I want to be stronger in my lower body. And I want to lose fat of my lower body.

Now, you do realize that it's, it's not only normal, but it's healthy. for a woman to store more body fat in the lower body. Not only that, but for over a decade, we beat the hell out of our hips. Yeah. So that's, A, you're going to have more body fat in your lower body as a woman. That's just, you're supposed to. It's actually a healthy sign. So that's number one.

Okay. So you got weight stronger. Also, remember when you're doing a squat, if I overhead press 45 pounds, but I do a squat holding 30, you're forgetting that your body weights in the squat. You're not overhead pressing your body weight plus 45. So your legs are much stronger than your upper body. Okay. So also consider that.

Would you say your heart, if I were to ask your husband or your friends that really care about you and I'm like, hey, is Jessica too hard on herself? What would they say? Yes. Yeah. I mean, I call myself a recovering perfectionist. I'm trying. I'm trying. You are.

and I think you're being, you're, you are kicking butt. Yeah, you're done incredible. And you're recovering from probably a decade of not being so kind to yourself. Right. And you're doing really well. Now, I could give you some advice. First of all, Musulami's got plenty of volume. Yeah, that's not the answer.

It's not more lower body. No, no, no. You're doing everything. You're good right now, but you're a perfect candidate for having a personal trainer work with you through this process. I know you're in the Bay Area. Are we close to you? or San Jose?

No, no, I'm East Bay. San Jose is like an hour and a half away. Okay, forget it then. I think you would be a perfect candidate for coaching or personal training because they'd be able to move you through this process. By the way, pounds of fat gained on a Dexas scan don't matter. Body fat percentage matters. So if you gained four pounds of body fat, but your body fat percentage went down,

you got leaner. So it doesn't matter what you're. So in other words, 10 pounds of body fat on a 100-pound person is a higher percentage than 15 pounds of body fat on a 200-pound person. Yeah. Well, and I can tell from my progress photos, like, I'm definitely leaner. Like, even though I'm heavier. You're doing so good. You're doing so good.

And honestly, you would probably see the progression in your upper body and your lower body at the same pace if we didn't have decades of beating our hips up. Yeah. So I know if you've been listening to us long enough, this is why we scream at people about endurance running. It is so rough on the body. And you said it to us already that you were the type of person that, oh, fuck that pain. Just keep running through it. You know what I'm saying?

And you did that for years. And so 20 years. 20 years, okay? And yet in a year, you've already gotten strong in those legs. It's crazy. So you're doing incredibly well. Incredible. The good news is you're going to keep progressing.

Yes. So whatever you did. with the 20 years of whatever. But the answer isn't more shit to lay, more intensity, more stuff to legs. It's just keep the pace, girl. No, you're doing so good. You've got to be kind of yourself.

Don't like the body adapt. And I'm going to relax into this. Just relax into it. You're doing great. Just chill into what you're doing. Trust the process like you have been. It'll move you so much further if you do. Yeah, the fact that you got leaner,

bumped your calories, got stronger. you're like there's I mean what else can we do right now there's there's not much just keep going yeah just keep going then the worst thing you can do right now is add more yeah yeah that's absolutely not what you should do yeah especially to an area that's already been beat to death for 20 years like that's not it doesn't need to be beat through the weights now like that would be the word that will set you back if if we're trying to build I think you would benefit from working with a coach through this process I could have somebody call you because I think it would be beneficial just to guide you through this process because what will happen for someone like you,

and you'll probably like this in your career as well, where you get after it and you go for it, what would really help someone like you is for them to help you get out of your way. Yes. You know, so you got that person to bounce off of like, and remind you how awesome you are. You know, I was thinking about that just this morning.

I was thinking about what are they going to say? They're probably going to tell me I need a coach to tell me to chill. Just through the process. Through this process. But honest to God, you're doing, I mean, no. Yeah, I read your email before he came on. I heard you talk about it. And I'm like, you're doing it.

You're very hard on yourself. You're doing really good. Yeah. Well, I have been trying to do this on my, and I, I'm big on data and evidence. And so I've been trying to follow an evidence-based process. I've been trying to keep track of everything. But honestly, like, you know, when I was younger, I just had so much energy. and I could do so many things

and I was so physically strong and then this whole thing with being in my 40s and perimenopause and everything being different it's been a real challenge it's been very challenging we all get older but you also have three kids a job a house like

yeah your daily habits are completely different it is not the same it is not the same but you're doing really well yeah I mean you're doing exceptionally well So, like, stay the course, relax into it. Because you've got another three or four years of consistent progress with this. Like, literally, you've got another three years ahead of you where you're just going to continue to progress at a nice pace

so long as you don't overdo it and get in your own way. That's the key. And I do that. Yeah. Well, that's why, I mean, that's why Sal is suggesting the coach thing. I mean, if you're open to that, we'll have one of our coaches call you and they can talk to you and you can decide if you want to do something like that or not. I mean, I think, I was thinking about that this morning.

Like, maybe, maybe it's time. Maybe it's time. Because it's not that I don't have discipline or consistency or even knowledge. Correct. But you're the best client to coach. You're my favorite type of client to coach. Because I know if I tell you to do it, you're going to go do it. And data.

If you just put your trust in me that, okay, he knows what he's doing. He's been doing this for a long time. He's probably trained a lot of people like me. He's doing a good coach. You just trust the process. Jessica, for someone like you, like this is really important to hear, okay? Data is very important if it connects you to your body. If it pulls you away from connection to your body, data is no good.

And so there definitely are people, and many of them fit that kind of personality profile that you have, where the data becomes the idle, and I start to ignore my body. And I start to look at the numbers and the data and compare and what's happening here. and if it disconnects you from your body, it is not good. Such a good point because if I was coaching you, for some reason, for some reason we did a,

you did a Dexas scan, and the Dexas scan didn't come out exactly how you wouldn't, but I knew in my heart we're moving the right direction, I would have to counter you. You know what I did? Because you would go,

Adam, the data saying this, we're going the wrong way, and I'd be like, no, we're not, stay the course, I would keep it all to myself. Thank you. This is what we would do with clients with you,

like you, is I would get the measurements and I wouldn't tell you. Like, no, I'm not going to tell you. It's for me, not for you. You're progressing. That's all you need to know. All right.

All right. I think I needed to hear this. I kind of knew you were going to say this, but I guess I just needed somebody to tell me. You're going to do so well with the coach. You will do so well with a coach. I'm going to have someone call you. I'm excited to see what happens here. Great.

I do have another question. Sure. Which is that I just am really finding bulking quite challenging. I found it difficult the first time, too. I'm trying. I really am trying to get my calories up. but I'm consistently hitting my protein. I, you know, my BMR, again, according to the Dexas scan, it's like I'm something like

1640 at rest RMR or something like that. So I'm trying to, I know I need, I know I can handle more calories. I'm up to about 2,200 calories on average right now. And I am just so uncomfortable. Like I'm physically. uncomfortable. Like I feel bloated. I feel over full. I wake up full from dinner the night before.

I think it's affecting my sleep. I do eat mostly whole natural foods. I really don't eat junk food or fast food. But that said, I can't meet my protein goal without at least one scoop of protein powder a day and I'm

considering including two just so I don't, you know, because it's just easier to take a smoothie or something like that than to feel like I'm forced feeding myself another piece of chicken. I have stopped weighing myself because that definitely messes with my head, so I don't weigh myself, but I can definitely tell I'm putting on fat. And I guess that's all part for the course.

It's just, I do want to trust this process. It's just, it feels like it's impossible to imagine getting up to like $2,500. It's not as difficult as you think. And there's multiple options. There's not one way only to do this. I doubt I would ever do it through chicken breast. that produce so much satiety with you, it would be like this.

All your meals, whatever, whatever, what I don't know what your carb of choice is, rice, sweet potato, I don't know what you're doing. Add one ounce. Every meal. Okay. One more ounce of that carbohydrate will do that. Or if the shake is convenient and you like it

and that's easy on you digest, like that's fine too. It doesn't need to be this like, add a meal. And everyone wants to go to protein because protein is this great, healthy, safety. But if it's hard for you and you, feel bloated from it. I'm not going to force you to eat a protein meal, especially if you're already hitting your protein. Yeah, but there's two sides of this. There's digestive issues, which if you're experiencing digestive issues, then we need to examine what you're eating and maybe

identify any intolerances. And then there's this. When people are disconnected from their body, what can happen to somebody who chronically used to over, sorry, under-eat and overtrain is when they feed themselves appropriately, it's uncomfortable. Okay. So it might also be that. It might also be that I'm so used to being underfed and feeling what that feels like, which feels like empty, which feels like, oh, everything's empty. And I feel, and then you start to connect that to good. Then feeling fed is uncomfortable. And so this is what I mean by the disconnect from the body.

So I've worked with people like that where like we're feeding them appropriately. I can't eat more than this much food. And so we start to talk a little bit. It's like, you just don't know what it feels like to be properly fed. Now that's separate from digestive issues. If you're experiencing legit digestive issues, then I'd want to examine the foods that you're eating and maybe move towards things that are easy to digest. Avoiding things like gluten, dairy, sometimes legumes can sometimes cause issues, which is totally different. And digestive issues tend to be much more pronounced.

It's like, man, at the end of the night, I look like I'm, you know, pregnant. Like my belly is really painfully bloated or gas or, you know, heartburn, constipation. and constipation. But sometimes it's just it's uncomfortable because I'm not used to being fed. Yeah, I think it might be a combination of both. Like, I definitely feel like kind of bloated at the end of the day. I do eat a ton of dairy because Greek yogurt is like one of my go-toes for protein. And I like it.

And I do eat a lot of beans for fiber. I actually do better with beans. Like on a day I have beans, I feel like my digestion is better. I don't, I eat some bread, not a ton, just naturally. I do eat other grains like oats and rice and. You can try, you try Cillium husk with a couple of meals as a fiber. If it's a fiber issue, that'll make a big difference. I'm definitely, I've tracked fiber.

I easily, I'll get 30 grams of fiber a day. I get a lot of fiber. But there's soluble and insoluble fiber, and some fibers can cause bloat. And so cilium. Husk doesn't do that. Sillium Husk isn't, your body isn't doing anything with it other than it just helps things move through. So if you don't have good, yeah.

So if you don't have good motility, then that may help. Just give a show. I can try that. But I also do think that there is a thing in what you said about sort of like the feeling of being fed because, yeah, I actually had this thought the other day of like, I don't like never feeling hungry. It's weird. It's weird to me.

You know how we tell people listen to your body? You need it ignore yours. Yeah. There are, listening to your body works when you understand the signals of your body and when they're not distorted. So there are many times, and I have a client, I'm like, ignore your body right now. And we're going to rebuild a new relationship with it. I'll give you an example for me. I force fed myself for so many years that not.

getting stuffed from a meal felt like I was hungry. And then I realized like, wait, I'm not hungry. I'm just not stuffed. So, and that took me a while to kind of figure out. This is why I like the strategy of one to two ounces of the carb in every meal because it's like so subtle. And if you came back to me and said like, oh, Adam, that extra ounce was too much. I'd be like, bullshit.

One ounce of one ounce of rice or one ounce of carb is not going to make you feel stuffed of a difference. That's definitely psychological. And so I could creep in those extra calories spread out over your meal. so it doesn't feel like this. You're going to really do well with coaching. Yeah, this is all stuff that we work on. And you know what?

None of us have the perfect answer right now. We're throwing a bunch of things at you that we might, but this is what your coach would do. Experiment with it. Your coach would say, hey, this week we're going to do this. And then you feed back and go like, well, that was horrible. And I didn't feel it. Okay, cool.

We'll try this now. Until you guys figure out the perfect recipe to get you into a good, healthy, reverse diet, which, by the way, is really going to support this leg, leg building you want to do. Because that might also be part of our problem right now is you're so, you're under calorie and just at maintenance and you're doing all the right things strengthening and the body wants to grow

but it's saying hey you're not giving me enough building blocks not giving me I mean you want these legs to build some muscle on them but I need more nutrients but I will say gaining seven pounds of lean body mass is phenomenal that's phenomenal but she could also that she could be getting towards her peak until she gets to more calories so

you may be tapping out of what your body is capable to do with the nutrients you're giving it and this is why you might be feeling like you're not putting it on any more muscle on there. We've got to get these calories up. Yeah. But slowly and correctly. I'll help you.

You're going to love, yeah, I'm going to have someone call you. We got you. We got you. That'll be great. And then I'd love to talk to you in like three months because I think you're going to be in such a cool place. Yeah. Yeah, I'll be very curious. I mean, my, my idea is to go through muscle mommy sort of bulking and kind of natural over the holidays, too.

Yeah. Good time to do it. and then I want to set myself up for a cut so I can take off a little bit more body fat. And I don't want to be extreme, but I'm going to turn 50 next summer. And I want to look great. I want to feel great. I want to feel strong. I want to be able to do some strict pull-ups.

I can already do some strict pull-ups, but I want to be able to do like 10 strict pull-ups. Wow. That's a big goal. Yeah, you know, you probably got really good genetics being a triathly. You just never really, you're tapping into him now. Just promise me. Jessica, you'll listen to our coaches. They're all trained by us. We took a, we're very, very tough to even come work for us. They're all very, very good. Uh, and they will be, I like being an A student. So I'll listen to this. Okay. All right. I like to hear that. This will be great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's, that's a great client to work with a coach. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So open to. educated.

My sense, we're not coaching her, so you'll figure this out as you work with someone, but my sense is the discomfort for meeting is really just, no, that was a great call. You hit it on the head right,

because I could tell, by the way, she looked and responded, I'm like, oh, you're right. But my advice is spot on them, because that's a perfect way to deal with someone like that.

Because you add, if you add one ounce. I can't do it. Yeah, it's like, bullshit one ounce is like a couple spoonfuls. You're not telling me I just bloated you from two and smooth.

So that's how, that's when you know somebody has that bad relationship with that was when they'll come back to it. So, but no wonder, because eating a full, and then choosing something like a chicken breast to add, that would feel that's so satiety producing and dry and boring. It's like, yeah, that's not going to feel good. I can do that. No, no. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram at Mind Pump Media. We'll see you there. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super bundle at Mind Pumpmedia.com.com. The RGB Superbundle includes Maps Anabolic, Maps Performance, and Maps Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs.

With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now, plus other valuable free resources at Mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes, and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is Mind Pump.